Kindle Fire HD costs a bit less now

Amazon fired a shot at rival cheap tablet makers Wednesday by dropping the price of its Kindle Fire HD 8.9” to $269 and up.

The permanent price drop applies to all versions of the 8.9-inch tablet. Here's a summary of the price changes:

• 16 GB model with Wi-Fi, was $299, now $269
• 32 GB model with Wi-Fi, was $369, now $299
• 32 GB model with 4G LTE, was $499, now $399
• 64 GB model with 4G LTE, was $599, now $499

The prices above are for the “With Special Offers” version of the tablet, which shows deals and advertisements on the lock screen. These ads can be removed for $15 extra.

Keep in mind also that the 4G LTE model does not include mobile broadband service. An introductory data plan from AT&T costs an extra $50 for one year, and includes 250 MB of data per month, plus 20 GB of Amazon cloud storage and a $10 app credit.

Amazon has dropped the price of the Kindle Fire HD 8.9” before. On Valentine's Day, the same discount prices applied to the Wi-Fi model, while the 4G LTE models were $50 more expensive than they are now. This price drop, however, isn't going away.